Thick and Thin
by Kitskune Miyake
Summary: The Nishiura Nine would stick together for high school and win the Kōshien together, right? But how can they do that when their pitcher moves to America? And what will become of Ren Mihashi? Title/rating/genre subject to change.


Before I start, I want to say that there will be themes of boy love. Please just put up with it or leave if it's not your thing. There will be a (hopefully) well-written OC, who may or may not have a romance. Like I said, stick around and meet this OC before trashing it. (S)He will appear in the next chapter (yes, even the gender is a guarded secret).

Disclaimer: Big Windup! does not belong to me.

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><p>Breaking the news to the team was going to be the hardest part. Mihashi had already explained the situation to the teachers, Kanou, Ruri, Shiga, Shinooka, and Coach Momoe. The whole time, he felt like he was simply practicing for breaking the news to the team, especially Abe.<p>

_I can't believe I made Abe promise to always catch for me. Now here I am, not able to uphold my end of the deal. _He punched the fence, not bothering to flinch at the pain.

"Hey, Mihashi," Sakeguchi called out from the field. "You're late. And where's your uniform?" Mihashi swallowed the lump in his throat, wishing he could run away. Coach Momoe and Shinooka came up behind him. Coach put a reaffirming hand on his shoulder, and Shinooka grabbed his hand. Squeezing her hand lightly, he grabbed the picnic basket on the handlebars of his bike and walked towards the

"Everyone," Coach called out, "before we have practice, Mihashi here has an announcement to make. If everyone could just circle up. You too, Hamada." They all approached the dugout warily, wondering what was going on. Abe threw a questioning look at Mihashi, but the jittery pitcher turned his gaze to the ground, trying to avoid everyone's eye contact. He started trembling, tears leaking out of his eyes uncontrollably.

"Yo, Mihashi, you okay?" Hanai said. Mihashi tried to meet his eyes, but couldn't. _I can't do it_ he thought to himself_. It's no use; I'm too scared. _He looked out at the rest of them. They were all looking up at him with anticipation. He didn't want to meet their eyes, so he closed his, shutting out the world.

"'Course he's not," Tajima said. "You wouldn't be very happy either if your ace was gonna tell you he's moving out of the country." Everyone fell silent, throwing glances between the cleanup hitter and ace pitcher.

Mihashi looked up, tears streaking down his face. "H-how did you...I didn't tell...I-I-I'm sorry," he stuttered quietly. He dropped the basket and ran away, wiping the salty tears.

They watched the fleeing blonde, a shocked silence settling over the team. Nobody could move and bear to shatter the painful silence. The only one that was seemingly unaffected was Tajima, who was busy rifling through the picnic basket.

"Hey, look! He left us some food," he said excitedly. Everyone flinched at the sudden words, but they all supposed that the fragile silence would break eventually, destroying the numbness from the news with it. "Ooh, onigiri!" As he pulled out a rice ball, something caught his eye. "Hey look, a note." He pulled it out and read it to the still-shocked team.

"_To the Nishiura baseball team:_

"_This is Ren's mother. In case he couldn't explain it himself, I wrote this. Just over a month ago, Ren's father was offered a promotion for his job. Unfortunately, he has to move to America in order to get the promotion. We've talked it over with him, and he asked if he could just stay with Ruri. They can't take him in right now though; it's simply too inconvenient for them. Please do not think any less of them._

"_Ren convinced us to put off moving for a month. We can't put it off any further. I send my apologies. Ren will still be allowed to use and keep his email, and enclosed in this letter is the address of the apartment we are moving to._

"_Thank you for a great season so far. You have helped him in ways I never quite could. I'm honestly going to miss you kids, but not nearly as much as Ren. Please keep in touch with him. _

"_Sincerely, Mrs. Mihashi._"

Tajima looked out at his fellow team mates with a hazy look. Tears were building in the back. "Well, guys," he choked out, "I guess we have to find a new pitcher." He wiped his eyes.

"NO!" Abe cried out. "This can't be happening! He promised. _I _promised. Though he was long gone, Abe ran down the road Mihashi had come from. "You promised! You fucking promised!" he called out at the empty streets. Before he could run down the road and shake the crap out of him, Momoe's strong arms closed around him.

"Abe, no," she said gently. "You can't. He's gone."

"He can't be gone," Abe sobbed, his composure slowly breaking. "He just can't. He promised."

Back at the dugout, the team finally cracked. Tears were streaming down their cheeks. No one practiced that day; they were all too depressed to do anything.

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><p>On the plane, Mihashi slipped his hand into his pocket, closing his fist around the folded paper. It was a contract, so to speak, because Abe thought he'd need the security.<p>

_I, Takaya Abe, do hereby promise to always be by your side as your catcher, your friend, and your first love. (signature)_

_I, Ren Mihashi, do hereby promise to always be by your side as your pitcher, your friend, and your first love. (signature)_

"I'm sorry," he whispered to himself.

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><p>Well, here's a first chapter. Maybe I can get a second chapter up eventually. I post erratically, so sorry.<p>

Please review with constructive criticism or a detailed praise. I hate "lol awesome" comments.

I have a general idea of where I want to take the story. Please stick to it until you are absolutely sickened by it.


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